The Mavericks May Be Diving Into The Celtics Ruins To Rescue Rajon Rondo

Dirk, Rondo and Dwight Howard is an odd couple that just might work, if the trade was remotely plausible.

Derick Hingle - USA Today

When Adrian Wojnarowski speaks, you should listen. During Thursday night's NBA Draft, the NBA's Nate Silver knew what every NBA general manager was going to do before they did.. We've all known for a while that Mark Cuban has been looking for a way to pair two superstars with Dirk Nowitzki in an attempt to join the super trios arms race. Dwight Howard is currently weighing his options between the Rockets, Lakers and Mavericks, but it's hard to believe he'd choose the chance to play with a deteoriating Nowitzki and a makeshift supporting cast over the youthful James Harden and his boy, Chandler Parsons.

According to Wojnarowski, Mark Cuban's diabolical plan to the Finals before Nowitzki becomes a hollow shell of his All-Star self involves acquiring Rajon Rondo from Boston. The Mavericks and Celtics made one trade on Draft night, but that only included the rights to Kelly Olynyk for Boston and a few second round picks to Dallas. Dallas was eager not to take on any rookie contracts so that they could squeeze Howard un under the cap.

Pulling the trade off, would require some Bobby Fischer-level chess manuevering their salary cap. On the difficulty scale of 1 - 10, with 1 being walk across the Grand Canyon on a tightrope drunk", 5 being Zero Dark Thirty and 10 being "easier than buying Apple stock in 1984", this trade is a 1. As it stands, the Celtics are looking to dump salary and tank the season in pursuit of the Andrew Wiggins pick in 2014, like they unsuccessfully tried to do in 1997 for Duncan and 2007 for Oden or Durant. However, the Mavericks are only offering first round pick Shane Larkin, but need to toss Shawn Marion and Vince Carter overboard. Donnie Nelson's got his work cut out for him over the next few days.

Mavs would love having Rajon Rondo to chase Dwight Howard, but Boston needs Dallas to take multiple contracts off its books, sources say.